The present invention relates to a system and a method for replacement of error messages with non-error messages, and in particular, for the replacement of such an error message received as the result of a failed address resolution request through the Internet.
The explosion of connections by individual users to the Internet, and the vast increase in the number of Web sites, has made the search for information difficult. A resource on the Internet, such as a Web site, is accessed by indicating its unique address, such as an IP (Internet Protocol) address. Often a resource is requested by resource name, as a text string for example, rather than by resource address. A suitable address resolution mechanism is therefore required to translate the resource name into the corresponding address. Since the character of the Internet is inherently dynamic, with many different resources, resources may be requested which no longer exist, have a changed name, or indeed never existed at all. Therefore, many requests for address resolution fail, in which case the resolving mechanism returns an error message. By displaying this error message, software programs indicate to the user that the requested resource name was not found in the address database or the server could not process the request, but does not give much more information to the user.
Rather than simply displaying an error message, a more useful solution would redirect the user to another resource, in which the user can optionally find additional information. For example, if the requested resource is a Web site or a Web page, the other resource could optionally be a Web page which not only indicates that the request has failed, but also suggests additional information such as links to alternative Web pages, a search engine, or advertisements. This information could be specific to the requested resource name, the type of the software program that generated the request, and/or the identity or other properties of the requesting user. Thus, much more focused, specific information could be delivered to the user, rather than simply indicating that the requested address resolution had failed.
Although certain Web browser software products attempt to provide such additional information by intercepting the error message at the client computer, these products do not change the packet of the error message in order to provide such additional information. Rather, these products simply display a different message through the Web browser. Thus, currently no software program is available which changes the packet of the error message in order to provide the additional information to the user.
Therefore, there is an unmet need for, and it would be highly useful to have, a system and a method for replacing error messages, with non-error messages produced by changing the packet of the error message itself. The non-error messages optionally direct the requester to information specific to the requested resource name, the type of the software program that generated the request, and/or the identity or other properties of the requesting user.